This letter concerns another biased and discredited source for
your film, “Spanky” Taylor. Not only has Taylor been gone from
the Church for more than three decades and knows nothing of it
today, her former husband, Norman Taylor, adamantly disputes the
tales she tells in Alex Gibney’s film about the treatment of
their daughter and her false “escape.”

Mr. Taylor was one of 25 people with firsthand knowledge who
were in New York to speak with HBO and Alex Gibney about
allegations in the film. But Gibney shunned all of these
relevant individuals with firsthand knowledge because he didn’t
want to hear it. That confirmed to us what we knew from the
moment we heard about Gibney’s film—it was a premeditated smear
where the truth would inconveniently get in the way. So rather
than talk to current Scientologists, Gibney relied on a handful
of embittered zealots who have been gone from the Church an
average of 14 years. Two of his subjects, including Spanky
Taylor, have been gone for more than 30 years.

So we knew Gibney would look the other way on any information
about Spanky Taylor showing she is making it up as she goes
along. We knew he would not mention that she tore up her family
by having an affair with one of her clients and turned her
children against her husband. We also knew Gibney would not
reveal
that Taylor remained a Scientologist for seven years after
leaving Church staff and raised her children with her husband
until that time.

Taylor in Gibney’s film makes false claims about the care of her
oldest child while she was undertaking a voluntary program of
religious study between March and August 1978. Had Gibney cared
to listen, he would have heard from her former husband, Los
Angeles attorney Norman F. Taylor, who refutes these claims:

…I understand that Spanky is now trying, through the media, to
revise history and create a false picture that Vanessa had been
mistreated while in the care of the Church nursery, and by way
of implication that I was not doing my job as her father to
protect and care for my daughter. Vanessa was well cared for,
fed regularly, changed regularly and had constant care by the
attending nanny, who reported to me daily how she was doing. I
never observed that she had been mistreated in any way. Quite
the contrary Vanessa had excellent care and I made certain this
was the case as her father. For Spanky to state otherwise is an
insult and a false statement of fact.

Furthermore, Spanky Taylor made other false claims to HBO
producer Lawrence Wright that her unborn son was placed at risk
while she was in this program, which Mr. Taylor also disputes.

…As a further note our son Travis was born in March 1979 more
than six months after Spanky had left the Sea Organization …He
was born in Martin Luther King Hospital in Los Angeles. I was
at the hospital the day he was born.
(See Declaration
of Norman F. Taylor .)

Not only did Gibney refuse to contact Mr. Taylor to verify his
former wife’s allegations, he refused to see him when he came to
New York.

If he had met with Mr. Taylor, he would have heard not only that
the tales she told about her children were false, so was the
drama about having “escaped” from the Church. Gibney instead
recreated an incident that never happened. There was no
“prison.” There was no “escape.” The film is only Gibney’s
propaganda. The true story is that Taylor chose on her own to no
longer participate in the voluntary Church program, which was
aimed at helping her stop lying about celebrities. Nonetheless,
she remained a practicing Scientologist for seven more years.
That was 30 years ago.

The truth about Spanky Taylor is she is a celebrity sycophant
who loves to make up and embellish stories at the expense of
others. That’s why she was removed from her position in the
Church that long ago. Following in the footsteps of Lawrence
Wright, Alex Gibney cast Taylor as an unreliable source for
information on John Travolta, based on alleged contacts she had
with him 35 years ago while a member of the Church at Celebrity
Centre in the 1970s. On October 10, 2012, John Travolta’s
attorney, Martin Singer, informed Lawrence Wright’s publisher
and fact checker that the allegations about Mr. Travolta sourced
to Spanky Taylor were false:

It is apparent from the queries posed that Silvia “Spanky”
Taylor is likely a source for much of the material (e.g., Nos.
17-41). In view of her very vocal animosity and hostility
towards the Church of Scientology, there are obvious reasons to
question her reliability as a source for information pertaining
to my clients which directly or indirectly involves Scientology.
Various statements concerning Spanky Taylor, such as those
pertaining to Mr. Travolta allegedly loaning his personal copy
of Saturday Night Fever for a Church screening as a purported
quid pro quo for seeing Spanky Taylor (e.g., Nos. 17-19 and
22-23), are untrue. This necessarily casts doubt on the
remainder of the information for which Spanky Taylor is a
source.

Even though Wright had been on notice of the falsity of the
claims of Spanky Taylor since at least October of 2012, he
included them in his book anyway. So did Alex Gibney, who was
fully aware that Wright had been put on notice.

Spanky Taylor is no source about the Church. Not only was she
removed from her staff position in the Church in 1978 as
unqualified, she was expelled from the religion three decades
ago for illicit activity.

She involved herself in “deprogramming” activities of the former
Cult Awareness Network (CAN)—a group which was exposed for
illegal activities. Its members were prosecuted and convicted of
assault, battery and kidnapping. The entire network was composed
of criminals and their activity (i.e., “deprogramming”) was
ruled illegal.

Having broken up her own family, Taylor turned to breaking up
other families through her “deprogramming” efforts. CAN declared
bankruptcy in the face of a multimillion dollar civil judgment
for such criminal activity and closed its doors in 1996.

Spanky Taylor undermines the credibility of your film. She is an
interconnected part of the small clique of anti-Scientologists
who were expelled for malfeasance. Like other Gibney sources
Marty Rathbun, Mike Rinder and Hana Whitfield, they seek to
enrich themselves by attacking the Church and have participated
in delusional, failed plots to take over the Church to get their
hands on parishioner funds.

This is Taylor’s crew. Her former housemate is Tom DeVocht,
another source in Gibney’s film who was expelled from the Church
for financial misconduct and exposed as a pathological liar. It
has since been revealed that he was a co-conspirator with
Rathbun and Rinder in suborning perjury and obstruction of
justice. Like these and the rest of Gibney’s sources, Taylor has
no shred of credibility.

Taylor is nothing more than another member of the same small
group of fringe anti-religious hate zealots. After three
decades, she still can’t get over her bitterness and move on
with her life.

Regards,

Karin Pouw
Church of Scientology International

cc: Alex Gibney Jigsaw Productions

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The Church of Scientology is committed to free speech. However, free speech is not a free pass to broadcast or publish false information. We have all seen what happens when facts are not checked or those being reported on are not given a chance to respond. The Church is taking a resolute stand against such actions—both on its own behalf and for others who either cannot or will not do so.